Although unsightly and smelly, salmon carcasses provide vital nutrients for young salmon. Biologists are learning to “fertilize” rivers that lack these nutrients to help salmon fry grow faster. photo by Phil Monahan

Once a salmon run has dipped below a certain number or disappeared altogether from a watershed, the ecology of the system is drastically changed because of the missing nutrients that rotting fish carcasses provide each year. This makes restoring salmon populations more difficultbecause the young salmon must survive in less fertile habitat. Biologists in British Columbia seem to have found a solution: a method of fertilizing rivers to add the missing nutrients. The initial data suggest. . .

One August afternoon on a southern Colorado river, my guide handed me one of the more godawful dry flies I’d ever seen—an abomination constructed entirely of foam, rubber, and synthetic fibers. Although hardly a purist, I do appreciate at least a nod to fur and feathers in a fly, and this thing looked like a science project. Seeing the look of horror on my face, Jason assured me that the fly was his favorite hopper pattern for the water and a pattern on which he had taken. . .

A beautiful winter rainbow from Idaho’s Henry’s Forkphoto by Mike Dawes

We’re buried in deep snow here in the Northeast, so fishing seems like something far off in the future. But Mike Dawes of World Cast Anglers took advantage of a break in the weather around his shop in Jackson, Wyoming, so he ran up to the Henry’s Fork to scratch the winter itch. He’s got . . .

Given the exciting news for those of us engaged in the fight against Pebble Mine (see below), I thought I’d post a few films that explain in more detail the issues involved—the value of Bristol Bay as a natural resource, the potential for disaster in a mine of such incredible proportions, . .